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An autistic care home resident had to be taken to hospital after being stuck on his bedroom floor for three days during the summer heatwave, his family claim.
The person’s parents, who asked to remain anonymous to protect their son’s privacy, said he was sitting in pools of his own faeces and urine for much of this time.
In the end, the resident’s father said he had to call the fire service to get their son off the floor.
Over the three days, his son was either naked or naked from the waist down.
The family reached out to LeicestershireLive to tell their story after the home on Groby Road in Glenfield, Leicestershire, run by Heathcotes Care Limited, was rated inadequate by healthcare watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
They said the report came as no surprise to them as the standard of care they say they had witnessed at the home has been getting steadily worse for the past 18 months to two years.
Speaking of the incident with his son, the dad said: “They were the hottest days of the year. The room has windows which don’t open. They’re covered in perspex, which has a few holes drilled in it for ventilation purposes.
“The staff thought it was okay for him to be sitting on the floor for days, naked essentially.
“I think he had a top on for some of the time, but his bottom half was naked, and he was sitting in pools of his own poo and wee. They thought that was alright.
“Eventually a more experienced member of the care staff, and there are some really good staff there, happened to go in and was so appalled, he called us straight away and raised the alarm.”
“His circulation went to pot because he was sitting in pretty much the same position,” the mother said.
“You know what it’s like when you’re sitting on the floor for even an hour or two. You get stiff, your legs go to sleep.
“He was there for three and a half days. They thought because he wouldn’t get up there might be something broken.
“But we thought, his legs had gone to sleep and he was just frightened to get up, which proved to be the case.”
The dad continued: “The nurse practitioner said it was imperative we got him to hospital.
“It took the fire brigade to get him up because they didn’t have any lifting equipment. They do now.
“It took us two days to get him off the floor because no one would come and lift him.”
Their son has autism and cerebral palsy.
“He’s a big lad,” his dad said. “Six foot with the mental capacity of about two. He has a few words, but can’t understand or explain very much.”
“When he’s in a good mood, he’ll give you a nice big hug, he smiles, he laughs, he goes out, rides around on his tricycle,” his mother continued.
“But that’s quite often not in use because the tires are flat or it’s not been properly maintained.
“He loves to go out in the car, he loves swimming. He can be really, really happy.”
This is not the first incident at the home, his parents said.
“He did become very obese, at one stage he was about 22 or 23 stone,” his mother said.
She claimed this “was as a result of him being fed a very, very poor diet”.
She said: “We worked with Heathcotes to try to get them to reduce his weight, which we had tried to do before but it hadn’t happened.
“They’ve now got a dietician and it has started to happen. I have asked for his menu to see what he is eating and I’ve haven’t had it yet.”
The father added: “He cut his hand very badly because he put his hand through a window.
“Imagine having a shed in a garden where highly disabled adults are active, but it doesn’t have safety glass in it.
“So he put his hand through a window and smashed it and cut himself very badly.”
Their son is funded to have two-hour excursions outside of the home every day.
He likes travelling in the car and going to the airport, his parents said.
But reports they have received from the home show these trips have all but stopped, they claimed.
“He is funded specifically to allow him for two hours a day to go out into the community, for walks, exercise, go to the disco or swimming,” his dad said.
“They used to do that regularly, but over the past year that’s pretty much all stopped.
“They agreed to provide us with information every two weeks over what activities he’s done.
“I’ve got three months of that. By the information they themselves have provided, there is barely any evidence of him being out of the house.”
“The car is nearly always broken, they only have the one,” the mother added.
A spokesperson for operator Heathcotes Care Ltd said: “We were upset to read the comments from the family at our Glenfield service.
“Our newly appointed managing director has been personally overseeing the implementation of a comprehensive action plan.
“Our priority is to provide kind, warm and professional care to all of the people we support and to help them to set and then reach their individual goals.
“We will continue working with the family and the CQC to ensure the care we provide fully meets the specific care needs of the people we support, and that they are happy, healthy and safe.”
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